


Defying All Expectation

by ValkyrieNyght



Category: Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Genre: Families of Choice, Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:39:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4470878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValkyrieNyght/pseuds/ValkyrieNyght
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shane never understood why people acted with such casual cruelty. As if they alone knew what he was about and could divine what or where his life would lead. As if their ideas were somehow valid and how he should therefore bend to their expectations.<br/>He never could grasp it, but it still pissed him off. </p><p>Even though his life hasn't exactly been excellent by conventional standards Shane is determined to be his own person. All he needs to figure out is who that person actually is. He meets some wonderful people along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defying All Expectation

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be about Shane's backstory Pre-PRNS. But, because I'm an angsty schmuck I made it relatively dark and gritty. I'm basically emulating C. Nolan. Sorry, not sorry.

There is something to be said for the power of an assumption; the audacity of it really. It was really quite amazing the power of a simple thought, and how it could influence so many people – so many things - so completely, regardless of how factual it was. Assumptions sparked reactions within people that could at the very least effect how an object is seen and at the very worst effect said object for the rest of its existence. Assumptions were power, regardless of consent, and despite the fact that most assumptions were always always proved wrong; people still loved to cling to them. The fact that people knew this and yet still believed…always baffled Shane.

Baffled though he was, bothered he was not. Not anymore. The world had long ago decided what Shane was destined to be. Apparently it had decided that he was destined to either be nothing of worth or more than seemed possible. Many had looked at him over the years as if he had already failed, or as if they were waiting for him to do something brilliant. He was always found wanting. At first he had tried to change it, to circumvent it – prove to all who fancied interest that there was more to him than what was seen. The effort it took weighed upon him, just once he wanted to live up to what was expected of him, or to surprise any of them. …..it was a stupid dream. Shane had realized long ago that preconceived ideas were always going to be made about him, and rather than buckle under pressure he decided to instead turn the tide and make them work for him. It took him a long time to realize that no matter how much he tried; it would never be enough. That was when Shane learned how to not care.  
*****  
He is six years old, the first time he has to prove himself. He studies hard in a classroom full of desks and sunlight. A legion of children dressed the same like soldiers occupy them. All bright and shining like little stars. Together they bow their head over pencil and paper while errant giggles escapes from time to time. The teacher stands in front watching her charges, lending a guiding hand to whoever asks. The others like to work together, but no one has ever tried to work with Shane. Sometimes he wonders why that is. He has tried so many times to coax the others to include him. He knows he is smart, all assignments given back with top marks. He knows what it is to not have enough food so he always makes a point to share what he has. Some of the other children take him up on it; a brief mid-air collision that used to that used spark hope and optimism that dwindles with each passing day.

His mother had once told him that similar things like to stick together. He looks at his hands and how much darker they are compared to the others and wonders if that’s what his mother had been hinting at. He is reminded of a flock of birds flying in tandem. They fly together without order, but together they fly. He doesn’t think that they do it on purpose.  
Shane works alone in a legion of children, but turns in the same worksheet at the end of day. He alone turns in all his work finished. It has to be because he knows that he will have no other chance once he leaves the room. The teacher takes it even though it’s early, a small if sad smile stretched across her face. He hates it, but he can’t say why.  
He is six years old and holding his mother’s hand. They slink rather than walk together through the city streets because it is dangerous after dark. Dangerous, but so so necessary because Momma has to pay the rent that the landlord keeps mentioning, and her customers only come out after the sun goes down. They turn a few corners before finally arriving at “the office.”

Shane already knows what to do before he’s told, tonights activities have long since become routine and hides away in a shadowy corner. He doesn’t catch the angry glances shot his way from the others already pacing the sidewalk. The accusing stares aimed at his mother. He doesn’t see the worry or the shame that crosses his mother’s face before she moves to check her make-up in a store window. Shane doesn’t see, because it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before.

He liked his corner. Swathed in darkness; Shane was all but invisible. As ridiculous as it sounded it made him feel safe, like the darkness could protect him from anything. Momma’s rules were simple; stay quiet, stay hidden, and for the life of him don’t bother the other girls. The girls dress the same as Momma; all painted lips and heavy lidded eyes, strange looking shoes and clothes he can see through. All lined up on the sidewalk like dolls on a shelf. Shane never likes to look. He doesn’t know the woman who his Momma is standing next to, but he can hear the angry whispers passed between them. The whispers stop only when the dull purr on an engine pulls alongside the two. He doesn’t look up when hears the tell-tale squeak of brakes or when he hears his mother ask if the driver is looking for company. He knows that she is smiling at the driver even if she doesn’t want to. Shane wonders if the driver liked her smile, but the sound of a car door opening and closing is telling enough. Momma was going away for a while. There was only one rule when his mother was away. Don’t move. Not that he ever wanted to. The only safe place at the office was his corner. Shane was six years old, but he had learned how to be patient a long time ago. 

Shane is six and spends his nights on a street corner. He lives with his mother in the shadows of an ancient city. He listens to it’s heartbeat as the moon passes overhead. It is a pulse that is peppered with gunshots and sirens that wail in the distance. After the nights work is done and the city finally sleeps Shane helps his mother home. Once the landlord is appeased the paint and glamour is removed and the two lie down to sleep. His mother sings lullabies in her native tongue that tell of a princess that followed her knight into a shining land across the sea, and how they lived together making their own destiny. But the knight was felled by demons swathed in red and blue light leaving the princess alone. How the princess was now trapped in the new land with a princeling of her own; unable to truly adopt the new land and afraid to return to the old. The princess became a warrior fighting for their way amongst the alien world. It is Shane’s favorite story even though his mother never finishes the tale no matter how many times he begs.  
He hates that too, but this time he knows why.


End file.
